COLOMBO, July 20: Sri Lankan police said Sunday they had arrested 114 would-be illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, India and Pakistan who had arrived on the island to travel illegally to Italy.

The latest arrests raised to 486 the number of Bangladeshis, Indian and Pakistanis arrested in Sri Lanka this month in connection with human-trafficking attempts.

The men were taken into custody on Sunday in the central town of Kandy, 112kms east of here, from two local hotels where they had been put up before they were to be driven to the coast to board a ferry to Europe.

Police said nine Bangladeshis, 83 Indians and 22 Pakistanis had been arrested without valid travel documents.

The latest arrests come two days after police took into custody 112 Indians and six Pakistanis who had arrived on the island to travel illegally to Italy.

They were arrested at two hotels along the southern coast of the island.

A magistrate in Tissamaharama, a coastal town 270kms south of the capital Colombo, remanded the men in custody till July 29, local officials said.

They said another 254 Pakistan nationals arrested earlier this month have also been remanded till July 29.

Police spokesman Rienzie Perera said most of the men did not have proper travel documents and were now being questioned to get at the kingpins of the major people-smuggling racket.

The would-be illegal immigrants had arrived in Sri Lanka exploiting a visa-on-arrival scheme introduced by the local authorities to attract high-spending South Asian tourists.—AFP